
X. 



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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 

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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



port /^9(;ie9t. 



FORT ANCIENT 



IN 



Warren County, 0. 



BY 



JOSIAH GiBERTON ENGLISH. 



DAYTON, OHIO: 
United Brethren Publishing House 

1889. 




7- 



.£•7 



COPYKIGHT, 1889, 

BY 

.TOSIAH GlBEUTON ENGLISH. 

All Sights Reserved. 



PREFACE. 



Things curious to some one have been found ever since the world 
began. 'Tis common to look for fresh dirt in cemeteries; and quick we 
aie to decipher something about a grave, that we Ihink leads to a knowl- 
edge of whose remains rest there. If we have traveled a great way to 
reach the spot, we sele(5l something to carry away with us, to lay up as 
a memento that we visited the depository of the dead. These things 
serve as reminders of the past, and lead to history. 

I suppose if a mound of earth of great size was discovered to have 
grown up in the night while we slept, our curiosity would reach an 
unbounded pitch in a few minutes to see and know something more about 
it; and inquiry would never end in our day. Who built the mound, and 
for what purpose was it built? If the mound ^as very large and very 
beautiful, no one would think to mar it in the least. All would consent 
to let it remain for future generations to look at. And the date of its 
building would certain!}^ be kept. And the curiosity -seeker would find 
a guide anywhere that would diredl his or her steps to the mound. 

We slept not while the ancients were building the mounds we find, 
but our civilization has awakened out of gloom a country once lying in 
wilderness and wild, where these mounds are discovered. And as we 
grew not up with their history, or anything said of them, the pitch of 
curiosity behooves the effort being made to ascertain who the builders 
were. 

The finding skeletons of human bodies does not answer who they are 
as respecfts their nationality; but the finding helps us to conclude that the 
people who built some of the mounds were beyond a doubt the same we 
find in skeleton in other mounds. That is, the man that piled dirt on a 
brother yesterday, is the same that another brother piled dirt on to-day. 
And so they went on building, and so we go on finding. 



The curiosities we seek, we do not always find where we look for 
them, but often many miles away from where we think thej' ought to be. 

The name Viro has been found written in chara(?lers on stones picked 
up in fields and along creeks and rivers throughout the land. And the 
name L,amah in chara<5lers on the same kind of stone. Under the name 
ofLamah was the piAure of a horse and rider, and the rider with a drawn 
sword; and under the name Viro, a piAure of a man holding in the right 
hand a spear and ax combined. On others, a man with a bow and arrow. 
On some, a man and spear. On others, a man's head wearing a crown. 

These relics may have been picked up by the Indians, and they may 
have lost them where they were since found, or they may have been lost 
by the mound builders in their ramblings. 

One thing sure, no Indian ever made the pidlure without seeing the 
original ( who was not an Indian ). 

Again we find spear heads, and celts, and stone and metal axes dug 
out of mounds, convincing us that the ancients did not build all the 
mounds. The metal ax was the only ax used by the ancients. The stone 
ax was the work of the Indian. 

In a day when there were thousanis of Indians, where comparatively, 
there were only hundreds, one hundred years afterwards, these metal 
axes and the spear and ax combination reached the highest antiquity, or 
a time when copper was hardened till it would cut steel. The copper ax 
found in the mounds of this country, is an exadt pattern of the copper 
hatchet used two thousand years ago. The French wrought a metal 
hatchet a great deal like the one described, that sold well among the 
Indians. The hatchet the French made, might be said to be a pipe and 
hatchet combined. 

To prove that these people were ingenious above the Indians, there is 
nothing found to influence belief that they were even found trading out- 
side of their own shops, for implements they used while thej' stayed here,- 
whilst the Indian bought all he used that was metal. His ingenuities 
stopped with creasing a stone to fit his hand, which stone he used to 
pound hominy, and creasing a stone rubbed to a thick edge, which he 
used as an ax, after bending and fastening a handle around the stone at 
the top where it was creased; for it is not certain they made the earthen 
pots indicated by pieces of earthenware where they camped. 

To show what may have been the difference in the two ingenuities. 
I had in my hand a thin black stone made in the shape of a leaf, imitat- 
ing the leaf of a poplar, with a white thread not larger than a thread you 



would use to sew on a button, worked on the stone. Both the stone and 
thread were as hard as flint. This stone was found with other relics, that 
almost carry convidlion that it belonged to the mound -builders. 

The ancients painted portraits on yellow stone, and then hardened 
the paint by some process that forced the impression desired, deep into 
the stone. The like has been found in divers parts of the State. 

I think the Indian features are the result of the cross of two nation- 
alities, one of them the Chinese. While the mound -builders, or builders 
of forts, are found buried beside the Indian, still there is a great difference 
in the two in skeleton. They differ in many respedls, known as caste in 
pidlures. The spot of God's earth they selected for this fort, carries 
convi(^ion at once that they were a people of more than ordinary mind- 

The enduring force of human hate. 
May here be found in relic huge ; 
May oft be found when foes are dead, 

To mark the spot where spirit fed. 

JOSIAH GiBERTON ENGLISH. 

Xenia, Ohio, OcSlober, 1889. 



FORT ANCIENT. 



CHAPTER I. 

DESCRIPTION OF FORT. 

'Tis Fall of the year, the wind is blowing, 'tis cold and sear ; 
The leaves are falling on a scene that awakens thought: 
Here encircling space on field of hill hath labor wrought, 
Whether defensive or aggressive, silence holds the lesson 
taught. 

Memories ago some tongue named this spot Fort Ancient, 
And tongues of late have repeated it as onward moved the 

passing train, 
And oblivion gives not up her secret, nor scene of past 

comes back to e3'e again, 
For who they were who fought and vanquished left no 

fossil mark of pain. 

Descriptive mind revolts and pen of mortal must forever fail 
To describe these grounds so ever in tumble with never a 

swail 
Save this from the tumble there's a flat on the ridge, 
Save the breaks by ravines that steepness abridge. 



Here round the summit brow of a hill exciting wonder, 
Is a wreath made of earth, bordering earth struck with 

thunder ; 
'T would seem electric bolt had many times cleft, 
From the multilateral face of hill-side it left, 
And the feet follow wall with the strange in and out. 
As the suit to each cleft meanders about. 

Just apast the hill-tops midway it widens in field ; 
On the east end the most wears a table-land heeled ; 
The heel towering up from valley side stream, 
Leaves table-lands wall looking abstract of scene. 

Over three miles of wall wreaths all that is hill, 
Leaving table-land adjunct meeting end of decline; 
This strange freak of nature left a level entrance door, 
Through which might be passed in the pending of war, 
To prevent which is wall uniting with hill. 
Which though ages have past leaves the door locked still. 

From where ascent begins south of east, 
To where ascent begins south of west. 
You have fever that troubles the head. 
You have pain that troubles the breast. 

Feels the heart the senses sick'ning, 

Feels the soul the anguish dread, 

Feels the prowess come back with its cheering. 

Feels regret for the number of dead. 



9 

Lonely the unaccompanied soul wanders between these 
walls 

Finding way back from southeast to narrows past the mid- 
dle grounds ; 

Here the ear listens for song that the mind feels should 
come from out the trees, 

But lo, the boughs only sigh the winds, and hold to thought 
a dream of sounds. 

Here the young child ceased its cries under the beam of 

love's soft eyes ; 
Here the infancy of years came back in memory's soft sad 

tears ; 
Here sat they, the guardians of each tender charge. 
Sat the wives of heroes verging life's uncertain marge. 

At the end of this forever to be remembered space. 

Here a sudden change in coarse of wall takes place ; 

Here the eye when turned to right, 

Looks far on waters clear and bright. 

Looks over the vallej^ that intervenes between the hills, 

That crown above the river rocks and rills. 

While gazing far with reach of thought, 
To mark what changes time hath wrought. 
Beholds the eye where Lamah stood, 
And talked to thousands in the w^ood. 



10 
CHAPTER II. 

Appo lamah's speech. 

Ye men of Lamah's race and tribe, 
My counsel hear and speech abide : 
Look across the river; has Viro, a proud king a throne 

there ? 
Has he a daughter Lillah, and is she fair ? 
What word is this he sends to me? 
"Lamah, with thy own people contented be." 

Should Viro refuse his daughter's hand, 
When we have far the richer land? 
What is it of late has been refused, 
Why her hand and Azariel of us abused? 

Were Viro's words to me a boast of skin 
They value more than diadem ? 
After this shall Viro wash his feet, 
Where the shadow line the silver meet. 

What is it to withhold the hand of a child. 

From him who had on her nobility smiled? 

What is it but an insult to you and to me, 

That Azariel to Viro's daughter can never married be? 

My subjects, behooves what I now suggest, 

To avenge this state of provoked unrest ; 

Yea, till proud Viro's feet shall track no more sand. 

Though the blood of our race soak the river hill land. 



11 

New string your bows, make sharp your spears ; 

Go slay, and spare not for age, or youth, or tears ; 

Let weapons of war forbid that Viro's daughter again be 

seen ; 
Where her maids were wont of the mussels the pearls to 

glean. 

Yes never, never again be there. 
Her maids comparing sand with raven hair ; 
What would this be but the silken golden shades. 
Despised as found on the heads of our maids. 

For wives of princes were our daughters born, for who else 

were our daughters born ? 
Yet despised have they been. Brother of our daughters, 

go kill Viro's folks for scorn, 
Till stream past rocky feet shall forever cease to How. 
iShall my heart or my people's heart know anything better 

to Viro's heart or his people's heart than woe ? 

Look well to the west where a fort wall now rises. 

Look, they head us oft ! Viro's kin look to it where the rise is. 

Our people are tented from the great waters' shore. 

To where of oak there is more than cedar to be forevermore. 

Here is our living, in the west, we've room to stay. 
Who is this builder then who obstructs Appo Lamah's way ? 
Will the sun shine on fields that our feet dare to tread, 
In the still west to us till Viro is dead ? 



12 

He headeth us off, his people are all doing hate, 
He hath land enough here, not for that he might not wait; 
To us he's a stranger, from whence we are he never came ; 
All we know is a king he is, and Viro is his name. 

Did he fear us? Most likely he did, because of our strength ; 
Hence he built a great wall, no tongue tells its length. 
Azariel sought Lillah, and found sitting there. 
The mother of the maid, with pearls in her hair. 

And beside her was a seat only vacant just then, 
While the king with his captain inspected his men. 
Just where sat the queen was a throne made of earth, 
For nothing but a throne could the rise been of worth. 

Azariel kissed the hand of the smile hiding queen. 

But the girl, where was she? nowhere to be seen. 

The thing looks warlike; in hiding his daughter he closes 

his door ; 
"Call again to see my daughter and I'll open up war." 

Now make him your leader who has been there and seen, 
That the two heads that reign are King Viro and queen ; 
Let the pearls be recovered that the queen took from stream. 
Lest the river all to Viro be the end of her dream. 

My son will now speak to you, to him I give place; 
Hear him tell of a wrong done to my people and race. 
While you harken to his words and drink of his speech, 
Remember I remain still within all of your reach ; 
Knowing well your decision will be that of the wise, 
We shall see what will become of it 'fore many more skies. 



13 

CHAPTER III. 
azariel's speech. 

Spoke Azariel, saying, Daughters of the Lamahs thou art 

truly fair, 
And more abounding of grace than the fallow deer. 
And more swift of thought than the deer's ear to hear; 
From the words you've heard spoken you know why Ira 

here. 

For of counsel there cometh all things to be wise, 

Therefore I come greeting under blue of the skies; 

Your great mothers were the daughters of the mother of 

queens ; 
That's what my choosing you in council now means. 

Once on a time, a great prophet of old, 

Spoke truth, and of a great country told, 

Where the air under heaven should no stubbornness hit. 

Like as walls around cities, this country is it. 

The crown of these hills is the crown to adorn. 
So explains this great prophecy and of God it is sworn ; 
Ahi winced, for he knew it from the brightness of stars 
That shone in his dream over brightness of Mars. 

To you is fulfilled all the prophet could mean. 

In the thousands of tents on the hill-tops now seen ; 

While the valley enriches your every day store, 

Be courageous that builders build walls here no more. 



14 

For the cities will come, and the spindles will hum; 
Like does silk-worm now spin, so will spinning be done; 
Yea, by the children of men in the towns under sun, 
And, a care will be had that around them no wall 
Be built lest the god of the prophet frown death over all. 

Mothers of the children of the Lamahs look well to your sons. 
Lest they fall victims to the charms of the daughters of Viro, 
As I did down by the waters that run ; 
One wears yet the pearls I gave her; forgot I their value 

above sand, 
For my heart beat quick that I loved her, I offered her there 

my hand. 

Are my affections to be trifled with ? I'm asking now your 

heart. 
Am- 1 the son to go to a heathen Avhen my mother and I 

must part ? 
Is fondest hope to be thus squandered? Break to me the 

seal of fate ; 
For I behold myself unconquered, turns my very blood to 

hate. 

Speak to me, ye daughters of Lamah, of Lamah of the 

house of old ; 
Tell me if true hearts' affection compares to only pearls and 

gold ; 
The mussel shells will furnish pearls; sifting sand will find 

the gold ; 
But sifting mind for heart's affection leaves the soul a thing 

untold. 



15 

Feels your heart to love or spurn me ? answer quick, my 
heart will break. 

Road to ruin, road to fortune, points no way for me of late. 

Tell me if the heart's own idol would idol be if life we 
take ; 

If love is God, and God is in us, how can we then God for- 
sake ? 

I feel there rankles in my being all the fires that kindle 

hate ; 
Yet I feel there's something 'suasive bids my angry passions 

wait; 
Wait for what, for more affection than I can find among 

my kin ; 
Lost to all my heart is Lillah, what of future is left to 

win ? 
Not the wind, I breathe of fury, not of stillness drink I 

solitude. 
Tell me, fair of daughters, ({uickly, what will heal this 

troubled mood? 

Your silence, wounded daughters, well concludes you un- 
forgiving. 

Perhaps you think my words to you, should be your mind 
now disabusing ; 

Why think you so, think you of my tongue and people I 
should first be choosing ? 

If so, then if I'd propose of you to wed, you'd be second 
soon refusing. 



16 

But nevermore I'll be proposing, feels my heart-cords now 

disclosing. 
Deepness, darkness yet no hiding-place for truth my faith 

in love abiding; 
Hears me the ears that heard my father, blest of woman be 

my mother ; 
Divided be my love to sisters, pours my soul now out to 

brother. 



Brothers of the tie that binds loving hearts that friendship 

finds, 
Seek I now your strength of arm, to go and do King Viro 

harm ; 
Let him who will my cause espouse, attaching death to be 

my vows, 
Encompass all within the wall, till all of Viro's strength 

shall fall. 



Let him, who Azariel can trust, remove from spear-point all 

the rust. 
And let his bow-string send the rod, like arrow from the 

hand of God ; 
Let him who would be first to lead, now quickly to the 

stream proceed ; 
Let him who would be by father led, recount to him the 

words he said. 



17 

And be not slow to reach the ford and quick to cross at a 

given word ; 
Prepare of the fatling a savory meat, to take along to have 

to eat ; 
If any confess a fear to go with me, without a word acquit 

is he, 
To sound the hoop-bull, choose of the strong, to cheer as 

battle is waging on. 

Pizarro, if thou be my brother, 
Go with me and not my father ; 
Let thy chosen followers be 
Men of heart like you and me. 
Never found of fond hope robbing, 
Life away from some one sobbing. 

Suit yourself, and I'll be praising 
Those who cross with me to fight. 
Suit yourself and don't be long, 
Choose ye valiant men and strong ; 
Not so many, but so willing, 
Now to go with me along. 

Come my valiant sons of Elihu, 
Camp beside the stream to-night ; 
You are of Pizarro's choosing, 
I am pleased with you to fight. 



18 

Let the charming waters ripple 

Last be heard when fall asleep, 

The braves of many a hard-fought battle, 

While still the hills the watches keep. 

Let hope's inspiring dreams be bright. 
Like stars which light the gloom of night, 
And let the morn whate'er it be, 
Bethink not woe's your destiny. 

For woe is not you, but your designation, 

For cometh to you of a strange generation ; 

There came a strange woman, now listen, 

While the dew of the night shows bright for the glisten. 

Of her race my heroes came never the chiding. 
Hence meddlesome folk dare none of the hidings. 
Descended to you is of her in the right, 
Born to no woe but to conquer in fight. 

With your distant of kin your battles have been, 
Because of a strange through the mother, 
'Till is sifted to friend, I and you in the end, 
Let who will now go with my father. 

The house thus divided, has of late years decided, 
The unit dissolving that holds hearts together. 
What comes of the fall will be known to all, 
Should the sun be seen of to-morrow's weather. 



19 

My father will wear a crown for his pride, 
His courtiers wear buckler and shield ; 
And Viro, his foe, will style for his woe, 
Of the thorns that grow in the field. 

And sure will be said after both men are dead, 

They were mighty in their day which is past. 

For the seed of the woman perceives there were freemen, 

And the house of Lamah has fallen at last. 

And the hundreds of years that shall come to these hills. 
Will remind of the past of the stubborn of wills ; 
Will remind of the christ'ning this land to be free. 
That never henceforth a crown here may be. 

And we will be dead who the day dawn have wed. 
But our ashes lying hidden in glen, 
Will have strengthened the soil in the valley where toil, 
Shall eat of the bread of the then. 

For the valley will gather of eternal hill, 

So long as all time shall last, 

And then of the dust shall be found of the rust, 

Of the battlers of all the past. 

For matter will never be annihilated, 
And though we may settle to whence we came. 
Yet the dust of the rust wall come up again 
When the earth is cooled of the flame. 



20 

But no child shall come up that your lips have kissed, 
Of your people to battle to-morrow for fame, 
For the reason you're not wed, but others of the dead, 
Will start at the call of your name. 

For to-morrow you will wed the daughters of dead, 
Who'll be slain both husband and wife. 
Whose sons of the men and who a tender charge have been, 
For of such of Viro's house shall lose their life. 

It may well be said where happens broil, 
That to the victor belongs the spoil. 
And Viro's crown may pass away. 
When once we've met in battle 'ray. 



CHAPTER IV. 

Still viewed as the dead of the past, viewed it is the river, 
With bend and change of course where may have grouped 

those crossing over ; 
Of the fact the shell shoals witness not, nor of who they 

were doth eye discover ; 
Left is emptiness tokening naught but virulent frets of 

air, 
Convulsing welkin then to scatter now to funeral dirge 

despair. 



21 

Did the hiss of arrows change the occasional chiming sound 

of wind's wail ? 
Is whir of winds through trees to-day like dirge that told a 

funeral tale ? 
Speaks not from where the shells ripple fancies evermore, 
While frowns like dusky brow the same Fort Ancient seen 

of yore? 
Do any of the trees growing here to-day witness of the 

death missile thrown? 
Nay, nor is the mark of dart or spear on anything around 

here strown ; 
Nay, for the centuries past that made here the discoverable 

rust ; 
Nay, for the scripture fulfilled, the dust returns to dust. 



CHAPTER V. 

ABOUT KING VIRO AND THE INVADER LAMAH. 

Where I now stand, stood King Viro long centuries ago, 
Looking down on a valley two hundred feet below; 
Through a gloom of night his vision strong, 
Discerned the waters moving on. 

Discerned along the shore of the beautiful stream, 
Lay the picture of many a troubled dream ; 
The invader with menacing boast. 
Was haunting vision like a ghost. 



22 

Of his ancestral house had westward came, 
Ten thousand men of ancient fame, 
Which tripled in course of years long past, 
Till ninety thousand was reached at last, 
When division assigned this spot a hold 
To him, King Viro of the house of old. 

Long here he'd lived, long here he'd reigned ; 
And large of fortune's store had gained ; 
Ten thousand men of war could boast, 
To face the now-invading host. 

All the wealth he had could not abate, 
In Lamah's breast, relentless hate ; 
No flag of truce need now be sent, 
For to his men decree had went. 
To weigh decree needs but to feel, 
A wounded pride that none can heal. 

He strove with thoughts to make amend, 
And make of Lamah yet a friend ; 
But soon there rankled in his breast, 
A fire that gave his soul unrest; 
That hate should ask his child to love, 
Sought him God's vengeance from above. 

I have these walls and they are strong ; 
I have my life, take both along ; 
But Lillah, save the child from a life 
That she'd be led when a Lamah's wife. 



23 

Lamah wants my gold to hoard, 

Not in his tent on hill just beyond the ford, 

But here ; and he wants my lands ; 

In my heart's blood he would wash his hands. 

Does Lamah know for each one of my braves, 
Near a score of his men will soon find graves ? 
Does he know that throughout the earth's broad face, 
Like this is has never been found a place ? 

While here he stood and here he gazed, 
The stars of heaven above him blazed ; 
And while they shed their brilliant light, 
King Viro left this look-out site, 

Saying I must look-out forsake, the morn will soon break 

My braves are now marshaling for fight ; 

The shadows that come precede the busy hum. 

And the day will soon open with bright. 



CHAPTER VL 



BEFORE THE FIGHT. 



We judge of the numbers within these walls, 
And judge the men were here to plan and fight; 
Once over the wall they knew their murderous foe, 
Not even to the aged would quarter show. 



24 

It may have been in narrowest space, 
That woman and child had there a place ; 
For there hath nature well defied, 
In what was other place denied ; 
For fewer men could here defend, 
Than seems the case at either end. 

Southwestward widens into field, 
Where multiply the unknown to yield ; 
Two thousand strong they stand in band. 
Resolving life should save the land. 

While eastward stand the greater host. 
Who challenge take for victories boast. 
Till valor stood in choice of chief, 
Whose history knew no failure's leaf. 

As day-dawn broke on highest hill, 
And nature waked in the valley still, 
Arose a hundred thousand men or more, 
From beds beside the river shore. 
And hastening quickly into line, 
Did all Fort Ancient hill entwine. 

Soon distance falls behind their feet. 
As upward bound like worms they creep ; 
No history tells they had given name. 
But endurance tells they had a frame ; 
No chief command the force controlled 
Depending all on numbers told. 



25 

King Viro's braves beheld the move, 

And swore of valor each should prove, 

And though the odds seemed fraught with death, 

Yet all would fight till latest breath. 

For well they knew the assailing foe, 
Had ruled no quarter to bestow ; 
For high above they emblem bore, 
That had waved o'er many a field of gore. 



CHAPTER VII. 

THE BATTLE. 

With battle-ax, and spear, and bow, 
Ten thousand rushed to meet tlie foe. 
Who just had echoed boast to skies, 
Of who had been first to mount the rise. 

Before had the flags the enemy bore. 

Waved above the heads on wall one hundred score ; 

The fury hurled by hand within, 

Wrought havoc like had never been ; 

Not only was wall cleared of foe, 

But thousands pierced to backward go. 

But still the press was upward bound. 
To where the hill with wall was crowned, 



26 

And soon had axes dulled their bit 
On skulls of warriors they had hit, 
And shaft of spear was red with gore, 
That flowed from veins of men of war. 

Te-dount repeated to solemn fury, 
Be strong twanged from the hoop-bull sad and cheery ; 
Save these, the sounds that rose on the morn-tide air 
Was such as arrow-point and ax descending seem to swear. 

But with all this mighty arm to save. 

In face of host that feared no grave, 

What is it when odds in number of men hold out, 

But to see near the end the scales in doubt? 

With all the valor man may know. 
When far outnumbered by his foe. 
He cannot nature's law defy, 
Nor stop the chances odds apply. 

The bounding wave of ocean's tide. 
Will over weaker current ride, 
And the strong may over the weaker revel. 
As water seeks to find its level. 

Within the course of human mind, 
The weak supported by the right. 
Successful fight may often wage 
Against odds that stronger force engage. 



27 

But where moral right lends no advance, 
The fight must tend to strength and chance ; 
Preponderance here of moral force 
To neither seems a sure resource. 

Southwestward from where the fort overlooks the steep in 

dell, 
There tableland forms to fort a gate where Viro fell ; 
Here height of wall full twenty feet, 
Was all the breast foe had to meet. 
Except the breast containing heart 
That throbbed the sunders struck apart. 

Here, as if death would swallow more than earth's fill. 
Neither side finds a foothold for the fallen they kill; 
And the mangier while beholding the mangled in writhe. 
Was himself a weak man that could hardly breathe. 

Left in cleft were the axes, transfixed were the spears, 
When the saddest of women wailed out through their 

tears, 
When the child asked for father, and the mother hid her 

face. 
Then yielded the hill sons death taking their place. 

Then Lamah's retinue turned to source of the wail, 
To slay those who were left to tell the sad tale, 
And Lamah himself followed in rear of the van, 
With twenty thousand footmen left of- command. 



28 

On entering the narrows he espied great commotion, 
His armed force in front being swayed like the ocean ; 
Next retreat was apparent, and revealed was a crime, 
That revolts all creation to the shores of all time. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

KING LAMAh's house AGAINST ITSELF. 

His son Azariel, wearing an eagle's wing and claws, 
Showed contempt for his father by denouncing his laws; 
And had taken of the captives fair Lillah to wife, 
And swore to defend her at the risk of his life. 
Had only the maids of the captives been taken, 
Leaving all of the rest of the women forsaken ? 

Lamah's face wore the pale that precedes deadly strife, 
And swore Azariel should give up his wife; 
And hardened his heart by slaying her kin. 
Regardless of blood poured out to his sin, 
Regardless of men at his son's command, 
Though they claimed to be husbands of captives at 
hand. 

For Azariel's men had taken each a wife 

Of the maids, save fair Lillah left after the fight. 

And they'd picked up the axes that fell from the hand 

Of the two thousand heroes who died for their land. 



29 

In view of these weapons still reddened with gore. 
Sat Lam ah on charger and still louder swore, 
" If Azariel refuses to give up his wife, 
I swear by Mahomet to take his life." 

And swore that should there be a fight, 

That his would be the cause of right, 

And swore the scepter should not depart from him 

Whose right to rule had ever been. 

And swore should be recovered back 

The rein that had been let to slack. 

And swore revolt would have never been, 
Had not a strange woman been taken in, 
Whose beauty lured the minds of men of yore 
Till there came about a bloody war ; 
And still that woman's beauty bred 
To count a hundred thousand dead. 

And now when he had fought and won, 

'Rose up through woman, his only son ; 

" Slay the woman," he weeping said, 

" Lest be seen to-day a hundred thousand dead. 

" Bear my decree to Azariel, it may be he'll retract ; 
If so, his surrendering the woman shall witness the fact. 
Oh, Azariel, by this sending acquit is me. 
Would to God my foe was now not thee." 



30 

The moments now that intervene, 

Like days of length to some would seem, 

But far too swift to others fly, 

For pending fate approaching nigh. 

Face to face the foemen stand. 
Waiting word that gives command ; 
Alas ! too soon that word was said 
That numbers thousands with the dead. 

Azariel's rage no man could measure well ; 

Said he : " For kingly favor would I my heart's love sell ? 

Even more if could be with this opportune of ages part. 

Turned deaf to what to liberty and insult my heart, 

Go tell him no. Though his regret is well. 

" Come on with vengeance, my brain has reached flame ; 

Come on, I'll fight you in liberty's name; 

I discern all your motive and weigh its restrain. 

Yet spurn all your motive and sever from name. 

" The pending fate now consummates the end, 
When sovereignty has lost in Azariel a friend ; 
Since liberty's arm thrown 'round its offspring a taint. 
Has saved a captive's life by love's restraint. 

" But lost to hopes we think we have. 

Is soon to be some trooper's life ; 

Made sure to be for fate that saw the grave, 

When liberty refused sovereignty Azariel's wife." 



31 

Soon above where nature visits glen with stream, 
King Lamah's sword was seen to gleam, 
And soon the hoop-bull's solemn cheer, 
Had called up veterans from the rear. 

And through the narrows to where as now was field, 
Passed dead who had in life for life appealed ; 
Rode the king like one who'd smite the van, 
And then the battle din began. 

Where objects intervene between man and man at strife, 
Then man has hope to save his life ; 
But now is no wall between foe and foe. 
Both are in open field to drink the woe. 

No carnage dire to mind produces feel 

Like does the wound that ne'er can heal. 

The spear, the battle-ax, and bow, 

To failing strength could death bestow. 

And they were used with that relentless force 

That soon made of bows a bier, and of battlers many a corse. 

With twang there came an occasional hiss ; 
Fell edge of ax through air with swear ; 
Descending blow was mingling blOod on bit. 
For the battler with ax had made no miss. 

And the spear-shafts were painted with the red of life. 
And the hands that held them slipped by blood's renews. 
While dangling from tie-strings of leggings was clotted gore, 
And grass wore look that only crimson tide imbues. 



32 

Men became weak having toiled in fight before on that 

day; 
Still over them scepter weighed no man's excuse, 
As if all lives were made the use, 
Of king's resent to sons' abuse. 

But the king had forgotten who the fighters were ; 
His mind was away to a point elsewhere, 
Where lay a crown of thorns in blood, 
And near by lay a king in mud. 

Then came to mind words Viro spoke. 
Might soon to him some death invoke, 
Which words for what they did relate, 
Seemed seizing mind with some dread fate. 

What were the words, where were they spoken? 
Just where his power to live was broken ; 
And they were these : " No king can live 
Who hath but death to subject give ; 
Just who hath slain me none can tell ; 
The shields were 'round me when I fell." 

Whilst the king was in dread state of mind, 

There came a runner him to find. 

Who spake : " Now plan for us to fly. 

Or soon by an arrow thou shalt die ; 

With thy retinue guard and suite, 

E'n then we cannot longer feel dispute." 



33 

Lamah obeyed not, but turned to fly, 
And many a missile passed him by ; 
But soon the fated arrow came. 
And Lamah slept no more to reign. 

But not until his horse had made a wondrous leap, 
From the northwest corner of the fort overlooking the 

river 
From where Viro stood and looked on him asleep ; 
For Lamah's horse was struck in brain, 
And horse and rider lay down the hillside slain. 

His bent had been to reach the ford, 
But death had snapped the brittle cord ; 
And down that steep of earth's decline, 
King Lamah felt his heart resign. 

No friend was nigh to raise him up. 
When death had passed to him the cup ; 
And horse beyond his master's trust, 
Had fallen there and bit the dust. 

Over the wall pursuit now came. 
With passion wrought to highest flame ; 
Madly, wildly, dashed they down the steep. 
Nor could a man his foothold keep. 
Nor stop, if would to dirge despair. 
Where Lamah lay in evening air. 



34 

Swift and strong all passed him by, 
Without consult who arrowed him to die ; 
For now with sun's declining ray, 
All fled was hope and lost the day. 
Belief in fate lent wings to flight, 
To reach the ford before 'twas night. 

The spirit's muse yet stops to tell 
That Lamah's wife wept where he fell ; 
Near by the spot a hunter and dog 
Are passing by a burning log. 
And scarce the two are out of sight 
Till song of bird breaks gloom like night. 

I lend an ear to the soft, sad strain. 
And think of the hunter and dog again ; 
Perhaps they had robbed the bird of its mate. 
And brought a soul to sing here late. 



CHAPTER X. 

THE poet's indulgence. 

I think no call can death revoke, 
But rhythm what the bird has spoke ; 
And verse as rhythm travels long. 
With ear that listens to the song. 



35 

And bring the past to help relate 
For vvhat it tells to heart of fate, 
And what I think the song to be, 
The same I'll try to tell to ye. 

Sad bird echoing song to leafless glen, 

Never my love comes back again. 

Death unrevoked beneath the boughs like fate. 

Yet bids my heart for summer wait. 

Chirping, singing late in glen, 

Never my love comes back again. 

Mourning dove on yonder tree, 
Go mourn for thine but not for me ; 
For thinkest thou no depths unrest, 
Like troubles now my aching breast ; 
Singing, chirping in the glen, 
Never my love comes back again. 

Hope renews with rising sun. 
That lifts the mist from off the nature young ; 
That grow late so near the springlet's brink, 
Where oft was wont my love to drink. 

Forget I soon the plant must die ? 
Deceive I me my love is nigh ? 
Sick, sad, sorrowing, left yet alone, 
Sighs death to me the winds that moan. 



36 

Wait I for stillness, that loneliness of heart, 
May think the yawn that wides apart, 
From what was life aflit the glen, 
Ere ne'er my love come back again. 

Then sad my soul wears darker ween, 
Than night hath hid from night a scene. 
Rayless, hopeless, chirping in the dell, 
Lost is love I loved so welt. 

REMARKS. 

Whether bird had caught the spirit of the once sorrowing 

of hearts. 
Needs but to only touch the chord which sympathy imparts ; 
Needs but here to see the sun rise e'er so fair. 
To lose its cheer for death found ladening breath from out 

the air ; 
Needs but the thought, they fell asleep but yesterday. 
They are only hid, they have not gone away. 



CHAPTER XI. 

IN THE GULCH. 

Following precipitous gulch the wind hollows, 

And seems to flap the sides of hill with tip of wings ; 

Deeper down the dangling roots of trees sing, 

As the breezes make them sing with delving flings. 

Here is where the breath of mortals thinned, 

When plunging bodies down the steep dinned. 



37 

Where are the other braves who fought from morn till 

night? 
Were they all killed in yesterday's fight? 
Is Azariel coming? Where is Pizarro ? 
Answer quickly, though in whisper. 
Anxious thoughts do haunt here so. 

BACK ON THE WALL AGAIN. 

Here is where thy father went down, Azariel, 
And howlings followed that made him feel 
That all was lost to him of fame, 
Since he no longer had a name. 

Here Liberty's first son looked down, down, down the steep. 

To where the dead the silent watches keep ; 

And their dust now dims for the vista of years, 

Too quick for eye to find the marks of arrow, ax, or spears. 

Were they like us ? Oh, who can tell, 
Burned and buried where they fell ? 
Leaves oblivion to hold the secret past, 
Only save from what they cast. 

What change has time yet made ? 
What do we know of time's escapade ? 
Science escaped him or them who science taught. 
Whilst others remained content with what some primitive 
father wrought. 



CHAPTER XII. 

AN OPINION. 

These hills were fruitful, and valleys beautiful, 
And the dead and gone raised fields of maize ; 
And cattle and sheep were driven to pasture, 
And left by boy in field to graze. 

And hamlets grew beside the waters, 
Material used was hewed to line ; 
And when was wanted of the metals, 
The ancients dug them from some mine. 

Explorers from among them found, the richer countries. 

Just as find our men of thrift. 

The only difference in now and then was 

The giving of land as marriage gift. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

FACTS. 

Some preferred the tent to stronger holds, 
Some preferred to pound the grain. 
Some preferred to work for masters. 
Others wrought to fortune gained. 

Envies came of viewing fortune, 
Jealousies of pride maintained. 
Wars would follow proud extortion, 
When no fortune wed was gained. 



39 

Like they used was used of old time, 

The Bible tells us what they were. 

Just where they left them, there they used them ; 

We know it because we find them there. 

Wilderness thick, and dark and dreary, 

The ancients thinned and made a park for weary, 

Till at last they had for wood a care, 

And seldom had young trees to spare. 

The bison grazed where ancient ax had swept, 

Long after the wile of Lamah wept. 

QUESTION. 

How long has it been since they wrought and taught 
The same that we have in lesson bought ? 
How long has it been since they for toil gleaned grain reward 
Where stands to-day our forest lord? 

ANSWER. 

No history tells us. Their posterity fails us. 
They may have gone to our fatherland, 
Might be our fathers were their descendants, 
Might be we take them by the hand. 

One thing is certain, no call we make revokes death. 

Yet the air we breathe contains the breath. 

The breath contains the lives ; 

God breathed into dust before the strifes ; 

And the body that became a living soul 

Hath not lost but only cracked the bowl. 



40 

And the same lies here that went down under frown, 
With earth of hill and valley to hold it down, 
While transmitted forever is the same of akin, 
No difference what is said of recovering from sin. 

This is offshoot we find, and relates to the blood thereof. 
This is the basis that founds our proof — don't laugh — 
That the son who from father stood right hand aloof, 
Was the founder of liberty in all our behalf. 

If the blood came from the one strange to the then progeny, 
Then who may, or who may not our fathers be ? 
Why, the seed of the woman strange to Lamah, 
Crossed with Lillah of the fort, do you see ? 

Azariel's mother was of the strange woman's seed. 
Azariel a portion of the seed could take. 
And breed through Lillah the spirit of mind, 
That we in our independence find. 

Of the hundred thousand that crossed the stream, 
Remain three-fourths here wrapt in dream. 
Of the followers of Azariel comes never a tale, 
That speaks where he went from the find of trail. 

And we quit for the spirit that brought up the case, 
Has lengthened the shadow that hides further trace. 
Of him who conquered and christened this knoll, 
In the name of that liberty he found in the soul. 

Without the aid of the spirit no mortal can tell, 
Whether mortal now found here in battle fell. 
Whether anyone fought who dwelt on the^hill, 
Whether weapons dug up were used here to kill. 







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